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Friday, January 4, 2013

Yukon Do It Race Recap

I ended the year in an amazing way- I ran my 5th
Half Marathon!

I woke up at 6:45 to eat breakfast, slip into my clothes and
actually let myself wake up before the 9 am start. I left the house at 7:30 to
arrive in Port Orchard (race location) by 8 am. Luckily I got there when I did
because parking was nearly non-existent. Someone must have just left because I
found the only spot let in the strip mall lot. The race started behind a strip
mall/brewery. I heard after the race that several people got their cars spit on
by the owners of a local store because he was pissed that the runners took up
all his customer parking. Oops. Lines were short to get race bibs. The marathon
runners took off at 8 am, half marathoners at 9am so I think that cut back on
the congestion of the check in a little. Porta pottie lines were a different
story entirely though. I had gone back to wait in my car for my friends to
arrive, Rosanna and Krissy were both running the half as well, when they
arrived we all piled into my car to keep warm, the temperature outside was in
the low to mid 30’s. About 15 minutes before race time we decided to get in
line to empty our bladders, what we thought were just people milling around
were really porta potty lines. Going to the bathroom before a race is a tricky
thing. When you get nervous you want to use the bathroom, go too early and you
might have to go again when the gun goes off, or wait too late and risk missing
the start of the race. I made it into the porta potty when I hear the announcer
say “30 seconds” OMG!! People outside started yelling at us to “hurry up” I
dashed outand headed right to the start
line. I found Krissy right away but Rosanna had disappeared and we had agreed
to run the race together. Rosanna is a little faster than me, her PR was 2:08
something, mine was 2:17:03, but she had been slacking on training so wanted to
take it a little easy. I found her at the last minute, whew. Our watches were
still locating when we took off, missed about 20 seconds of the start. This was
a BEAUTIFUL race, a lot of it along the water. The parts that didn’t have a
waterfront view were on back roads with horses and camels, yes camels, to
entertain us as we ran by. I was expecting a nearly completely flat route but
there were a few surprise hills thrown in. One hill in particular going down
into the state park looked long and depressing, but I found that on the way
back up it wasn’t as bad as I had expected so it didn’t slow me down much. The
shoulders were the only other thing that surprised me. The shoulders to the
road were very narrow, and policemen kept driving up and down the roads yelling
“single file.” I ran in the road when they weren’t looking. There is nothing
worse than being stuck behind someone whose pace makes yours all awkward as you
trip over your own feet.

I felt really strong coming into the last couple miles. I
told Rosanna at the start of the race my goal was to PR and to hit 2:15:00. To
do that I had to keep my pace under a 10:30 mile. At mile 7 we knew we were
golden, Rosanna went so far as to tell me I might finish under 2:10:00. I
didn’t want to get my hopes up too much and struggle at the last minute so we
just kept a steady pace.She asked me if
I wanted to pick it up but that last mile I was still running 9:45’s which is
good for me so I told her no, lol. The finish line came intoview and I looked down at my watch which said
2:06, I told Rosanna, cause I knew if she took off then she could PR. She gave
me a half way sympathetic look and said “see ya!” She finished in 2:08:08 and
PR’d! I wasn’t far behind though, I heard a running buddy (Jill) cheering for
me, which was an unexpected surprise, I didn’t know she’d be there, and I
quickened my pace a little flying through the finish line at 2:08:23!I PR’d by almost 9 (count that
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
minutes!!! My average pace was 9:48, unheard
of for me over such a long distance.

I finished feeling great, I was so excited I didn’t even get
a medal for a few minutes. I just stood there blabbering to Rosanna about how I
wanted to cry but wasn’t going to, lol. I stuck around to watch our other
friend Krissy finish, she PR’d too 2:56 I believe. PR’s all around, nice!

The next day I knew I wanted to do a shakeout run. Ran 5
miles with some friends, including Jill who cheered me on at the finish. Our
route was pretty hilly too…not the best for recovery but I was so psyched that
I felt good enough to do it the day after a half.

About Me

My name is Marissa, I'm a mother of two beautiful little girls and a wife to a wonderful man named James. I work full time, have a part time job selling Lia Sophia jewelry, and when I find any spare time I act completely selfishly and do what I love- RUN!